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The one who didn't get away. A male Nephilengys malabarensis
snapped off his genitals (red box) in the female, but it was eaten anyway.
I suppose it's better to snap off your genitals rather than be devoured by your partner after mating, but it's not that much better. Here's a solution that the male orb-weaver spider Nephilengys malabarensis developed to increase its chance of survival after mating with a cannibalistic female:
Daiqin Li at the National University of Singapore and his colleagues studied the species and found that after the male breaks away his severed organ continues to pump sperm into the female. This allows him to fertilize her remotely, while denying entry to other males. Even though the male cannot regrow his genitals and so renders himself sterile, he increases the odds that he will father the offspring of his one and only mate. [...]
Li thinks that this bizarre strategy, found in only two spider families so far, evolved to counter the female’s penchant for cannibalism. “The females are very aggressive and 75% of them kill the males during sex,” he explains. “The duration of copulation is also very short, and the females initiate the break-off.”
Previously on Neatorama: 30 Strangest Animal Mating Habits
Scientists have discovered something quite curious about the way the male splendid fairy-wrens attract their mates: they use fear as a flirtation device!
Using a horror film to bring your date closer is a classic move in the teenage playbook. Now, a study of Australian birds finds that other animals use the same "scary movie effect" to attract female attention, by hitchhiking mating signals onto the calls of predators.
Male splendid fairy-wrens, a sexually promiscuous small bird native to Australia, are known to sing a special song each time they hear the call of one of their predators, the butcherbirds. New research from scientists at the University of Chicago finds that this seemingly dangerous behavior actually serves as a call to potential mates — a flirtation using fear.
Published in the journal Behavioral Ecology, the study involved painstaking field research playing sound clips to splendid fairy wrens at a conservation center in Southern Australia. Experiments determined that the "vocal hitchhiking" of male birds is a courtship behavior that uses predator calls to grab the attention of female birds.
See also: 30 Strangest Animal Mating Habits
What do Tom Selleck, Frank Zappa, and Mexican Molly have in common? Turns out that all three understand the power of the mustache in attracting mates:
Scientists were unsure why male Mexican mollies wear an extravagant moustache-like structure on their top lip.
Now a study has revealed that female fish find the moustache sexually attractive, and it is likely to be a sexually selected trait.
As well as being visually-attractive, the moustache may be used to rub the female fish’s genitals, exciting them.
Previously on Neatorama: 30 Strangest Animal Mating Habits
We’ve featured this before on Neatorama, but if you haven’t seen it (or if it’s been a while since you last saw it), take look: the mating habit of the water shrew by Tomer Eshed. Miss Cellania has the video clip: Link
See also: 30 Strangest Animal Mating Habits
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It is that time of year again and as the aphid population swells, so will that of the ladybug. The insect itself has a fairly strange life cycle and here it is for you in all its wonderful gory, sorry, glory.
The male has an insect penis which is called an aedeagus. A “lock and key” fit means that if he gets it wrong and tries to mate with another species of ladybug, he will not get to third base! Fertilization, as you can see, is internal, which surprises many people. It doesn’t exactly start with a kiss, but with a little Barry White in the background this could almost be classed as romantic! Almost, but not quite!
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